


Book End to "By-law"

by koalathebear



Category: Terra Nova (TV)
Genre: F/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-15
Updated: 2012-01-15
Packaged: 2017-10-29 14:19:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,471
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/320829
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/koalathebear/pseuds/koalathebear
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Set during and after episode "By-Law". We saw what happened when Milner was sentenced for Foster's murder, but I was wondering how Reynolds might have reacted to the revelation about Curran.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Book End to "By-law"

"All right honey, we can go and visit," Elisabeth told Zoe with a tolerant smile.

"Tell your father I’m taking Zoe to Dr Wallace's lab to visit the Ankylosaur egg," Elisabeth told Josh and Maddy amidst Zoe’s squeals of pleasure. Maddy looked up from her homework but Josh barely glanced up from the guitar that he was strumming moodily.

"Bye mom," Maddy told her. "Have fun Zoe."

Maddy finished her homework and turned off her Plex, putting it in her backpack and coming to sit beside her brother who was sitting on the corner of his bed, looking out with a fixed, unsmiling stare.

She listened for a few minutes before humming along to the aimless melody, occasionally throwing in a nonsense word or phrase to make him smile.

"What the hell is a mashed tuber rose?" he demanded.

"No idea, it just fit syllable-wise," she answered and they both laughed.

"You know ... for such bossy parents, they sure leave us alone a lot," Josh remarked finally.

"We could be playing in traffic and eating dirt for all they know," Maddy agreed. "Anyway - what are you doin’ here? Aren’t you late for your shift at the bar or – " she trailed off with a question in her voice.

"Dad decided to go all paternal and made me quit today," Josh told her, strumming a little more forcefully.

"He only _just_ found out about it? Way to go dad with his finger on the pulse," Maddy said ironically. "Still - that sucks," she agreed. "Gotta say - it really does feel kind of weird sometimes – on the one hand, mom and dad still act like all the same rules apply here – be good, do your homework and survival classes, eat your strange, unidentifiable enzyme-compatible vegetables, beware of strangers, particularly the carnivorous predatory kind ... don’t come home late ... but they’re not really around to make sure we actually follow these rules ... They act like we’re still in our old world but you know ... this is a place where a guy used a Nykoraptor to kill his own friend. We’re living in a society where we literally banish people into the wilderness to die – it doesn’t get more primitive and basic than that, does it?"

Josh frowned for a moment. "Maybe the rules are dad’s way of holding it together."

"You think?" Maddy asked him. "He seems to fit in pretty well here already ..."

Josh shrugged. "What do I know? I’m just a stupid kid as far as he’s concerned."

"We might be stupid kids but we’re not that much younger than the guy who got murdered ... we’re not that much younger than the guy who murdered him. As far as colony laws go, Curran’s old enough to stand trial and be sentenced for a crime ..."  
Maddy fell silent for a moment as she reflected on the sobering events of the past few days.

"How’s Mark going? Can’t be a good day for him - both guys were his friends," Josh asked, realising that even though his day was bad, there were others in the colony who’d had it worse.

"I don’t know," Maddy said honestly. "He was all stoic and calm when I saw him – but you know him, he’s always like that. I almost started talking to him about why I oppose capital punishment and how I believe in rehabilitation over retribution ... but I stopped – it’s not the time or the place."

She seemed to make a decision and stood up with an air of resolve. "Can you tell dad I’m going to bed early? It’s been a long day," Maddy told him.

Josh lifted an eyebrow and smiled in faint understanding as Maddy went to close her bedroom door and went to stand by the back door.

"You better be fast – everyone will probably be back before you know it," he warned her. "If we're both grounded, this house is going to get real small, real fast."

"I will – and you know what? I’m glad we still have parents. Look at people like Skye or Mark – they’ve got no one except themselves ... we’re kind of spoiled."

"Yeah thanks - I’ll try to appreciate what we have when I’m not so pissed at dad," Josh replied.

***

Maddy let herself outside, breathing deeply of the cool night air. It was still something that she found to be an amazing experience – the act of drawing breath and pulling fresh air deep into her lungs. She sometimes wondered whether irreparable damage had been done to their bodies by the polluted environment of 2149 or whether the human body was so resilient that it could heal itself now that it was in a new world.

She knew where to find Mark - when returning home she had seen him crossing the main market place to head towards sentry duty. Corporal Bracco was patrolling the base of the gates when she approached.

"Reynolds is up there," he pointed.

"Thanks," she told him with a smile and made her way up the stairs.

Mark was waiting for her when she arrived.

"Hey you," she said with a quick smile.

"Bracco let me know you were coming up" explaining his lack of surprise. "I take it the sheriff doesn’t know you’re AWOL? " he asked her.

"Of course not," she told him, with a baleful stare.

"Great, you realise he’s never going to give me permission for me to court you."

"He already knows I said yes," Maddy said airily. "Contrary to what you think, this is not a patriarchal society where my father has complete control over me – I have my own thoughts and beliefs and I make my own decisions!"

"He’s got the power to ground you."

"OK, you've got a point there."

They stood side by side looking out into the tree line of the jungle that was as beautiful as it was terrifying. He glanced down at her and lifted a hand as if to touch her cheek and then dropped it again to the rough wooden railing.

"How are you holding up?" she asked him awkwardly.

"I’m fine," he replied inadequately and she smiled crookedly.

"This is like that guy thing isn’t it – where it’s hard to talk about your feelings?" she diagnosed, studying him through narrowed eyes.

"It’s probably a combination of the guy thing and a bit of the ‘me’ thing," he confessed. His eyes scanned the area before him, moving back to the thickness of the jungle. "Curran’s out there in that ... alone. Don’t even know if he has a weapon ... "

"I guess it’s kind of different when the person being punished is someone you know ..." Maddy said slowly.

"The commander was right to banish him," Mark said earnestly. "He killed another man in cold blood – he killed one of his own – one of our friends ..."

Maddy’s forehead crinkled as she frowned, reaching for a thought that was chasing around in her head. "I guess – where do you draw the line? You give a man a gun and you tell him it’s ok to kill in certain circumstances and that it’s the right thing to do ... It doesn’t surprise me at all that the line can get blurred sometimes. It’s always seemed kind of counterintuitive to me that war is supposed to have rules that everyone follows. I mean come on - there isn’t really a civilized way for us to kill each other, is there? Why is it legal and ok to end someone’s life during a war or ‘in the line of duty’ but it’s murder and illegal in a different scenario? Why is one form of killing allowed when others aren't?"

Mark looked at her sharply. "Oh come on Maddy, don’t get all philosophical on me. There are rules of engagement for warfare. Murder isn’t just about killing someone – it’s an _unlawful_ killing. Killing enemy soldiers on the battlefield is legal – if murder is illegal then killing a soldier on the battlefield in a war can't be murder. A soldier who kills an enemy under the rules of war isn't a murderer."

"So you’re saying that if you shoot a guy on the street that’s murder but if it’s in the line of duty it’s not. "

"Yeah."

Maddy shook her head. "I haven’t studied military theory like you have, but I do know a bit about these rules of engagement ... Thing is, if you strip it right back to the basics - you can argue that murder and the act of killing during a war are the same. In both cases, the life of one person ends at the hands of another. The victim isn't choosing to die."

"So does that mean you’re calling _me_ a murderer, Maddy?" Mark asked her mildly.

"No, no no!" she exclaimed, cursing herself for letting her thoughts run away with her again. "No more than I think my dad is a murderer when he has to shoot a criminal in the line of duty. Mark - I know you have a strong sense of right and wrong ... but I can see how for someone who has a less clear perspective on the act of killing might lose his way and get confused ..."

"Maddy, Curran trapped a Nykoraptor inside a communications relay station 19-A where he knew that Foster was headed ... it seems pretty damned pre-meditated to me and there’s no blurring or confusion there any which way you look at it."

"Good point," Maddy agreed. "And what a horrible, horrible way to die. The English philosopher Thomas Hobbes said in his book _Leviathan_ that without government or rules - the state of nature is a place there is _‘no knowledge of the face of the earth; no account of time; no arts; no letters; no society; and which is worst of all, continual fear, and danger of violent death; and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short._ "

"He might have been talking about life on Terra Nova," Mark said with a fleeting grimace. "Before you came along anyway," he told her.

"Aww - that’s sweet," she told him.

"Thank you," he said with a crooked smile.

"It bothers me and it bothers my mom, too that Taylor can judge and sentence people without a proper trial ... it’s very Hobbesian, you know?"

"I have a feeling I’m about to find out," Mark said with a faint smile.

"Well - Hobbes said that society is a population beneath a sovereign authority, to whom all individuals in that society cede some rights for the sake of protection. Any abuses of power by this authority are just to be accepted as the price of peace. So just like in this colony, Hobbes had no doctrine of separation of powers - the sovereign had to control civil, military, judicial, and ecclesiastical powers .... I guess, it didn’t occur to me that this is how life in the colony would be."

"Things have to come in stages, you know? Natural justice is the first step ... and don’t worry - eventually some lawyers are going crawl out of the primordial ooze and set up the rule of law you’re after."

Maddy looked very apologetic. " _Well ...._ technically given that we’re in the Cretaceous period, that actually post-dates the period of time during which the primordial ooze is supposed to have taken place – according to abiogenesis theories anyway ... In any case, lawyers wouldn’t _actually_ be crawling out of the ooze given that the first living things on Earth are thought to be single cell prokaryotes ... oh _god_ \- am I babbling again?"

Mark had been surveying the fence line but he looked down at her. "Yeah, but it’s kinda cute," he said with a grin.

"My family doesn’t think so."

Mark smiled again. Despite the darkness of the day, he felt the heaviness in his heart beginning to lift gradually. He spoke into his comms unit to check-in. "All clear," he reported and then looked down at Maddy again before looking away. "I know it’s a cliché but I blame myself a bit – I think we all do - none of us knew how deep into gambling both Foster and Curran had gone. We all hang out at Boylans and do a bit of drinking ... a bit of gambling ... We assumed it was just killing time ... having fun ... I never even asked them if they were ok."

"Would they have told you if they weren’t?" Maddy asked.

"Probably not ... it’s that guy thing again. We just don’t seem to talk about .. things – or things that matter anyway."

"You talk to me ..."

"That’s different," he reminded her.

"I’m glad," she said quietly and there was a long silence as they just stood watching the perimeter and breathing. "I better be going before everyone gets home. I’m glad you’re ok – g’night .." she told him and started to leave.

He took her hand before she could move away and she paused and stared up at him. His eyes were very dark and serious. "Thanks for the visit."

"No problem."

"So when can I see you again?" he asked her.

"Does that mean that we’re up to the planned activity or event outside of the home that might please me?" she joked.

He looked mildly sheepish. "Yes."

She looked mischievous. "Saturday – the whole family will be out of the house ... "

"Where do you want to go?"

"I haven’t really been OTG except for survival training ..." Mark’s eyes widened slightly.

"Uh ..."

"Don’t I get to pick my own planned activity or event?" Maddy demanded in mock outrage.

"Yeah but – "

"Let’s have a picnic ... no one needs to know... let’s hang out and ... you know ... be happy and ... pretend we’re not living in a ... Hobbesian society and that .... we _do_ have rights and stuff - not just freedoms created under an artificial construct of rigid social contract theory ... "

That made Mark laugh out loud. "OK, I have the day off Saturday – so I’ll pick you up Saturday morning. You’re responsible for making sure the coast is clear in the Shannon household. I’ll bring the food and transport – you can tell me more about Mr Hobbes – maybe we’ll even move onto Rousseau at some point ..."

"Copy that!" Maddy exclaimed. Mark’s hand tightened on hers for a moment before releasing it and she walked to the top of the stairs. "Enjoy the rest of your shift."

"See you Saturday."

***

Maddy let herself back into the house – which was empty. Josh had gone out and left his guitar on the bed and her parents and Zoe were still out exclaiming over the marvel of an Ankylosaur egg.

Despite all the troubles of the week, when Maddy fell asleep, she had a smile on her face. Although theories of social contract were flying about her head – they were interrupted more often than not by visions of steady blue eyes, a fleeting smile and the thought that even in a Hobbesian society - love might still be possible.

**end**


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